Kentucky Leading the Way in CCSS

by Olivia Billbrough, Spring 2014 Intern

In 2010, Kentucky was the first state to implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) into its classrooms. Since then, students have had to adapt to a new way of learning, and for some, this adaptation isn’t happening fast enough, causing some reservations and confusion about CCSS.

While CCSS does mandate a standard of education across the states that are adopting it, it is up to the teachers and administrators in local school districts to decide how the students will be learning these standards. This is where some of the confusion is coming from, as some people believe that the government is overreaching and causing unnecessary confusion for students.

Though students in Kentucky have not nearly reached the goals that educators hoped to achieve, there is still optimism that students will, in time, turn those scores around. In fact, other states’ schools have seen an increase in performance by implementing CCSS and personalizing it to their classrooms. Explorer Elementary in Kentwood, Michigan, for example, has adopted CCSS, and teachers wanted to find a way to help their kids move from memorization to a better understanding of the problem-solving methods in math that CCSS demands. They turned to a method developed in Singapore, called Singapore Math, that utilizes bar models. Already schools across Kentwood that have applied this method have seen improvements from last year.

With so many different emotions surrounding the Common Core, it is not difficult to see why states such as Kentucky are still having trouble raising their student’s scores. Some opponents to CCSS in Kentucky were vocal enough that state legislators had to revote to keep the Common Core [PDF link]. These factors, coupled with declining educational budgets, makes implementing CCSS difficult, but many believe that these short-term hiccups will, over time, be resolved in order to allow students to achieve a better education that helps them better prepare for college admission and compete effectively against their international peers.

Did You Know?

In one of our blogs published in the summer of 2013, we noted some of the major misconceptions concerning the Common Core. Among those addressed were the ideas that states with standards at a higher level than CCSS would essentially be dumbing down the curriculum, that classic literature would have no place in schools implementing CCSS and that the standards would still not allow the United States to excel as well as many foreign countries do. All of these ideas lacked—and still lack— any foundation in fact, though the latter, of course, remains to be seen—there’s no telling how well students in any country will perform regardless of standardized curriculum.

Myths, some of which are entirely misleading, continue to arise regarding the standards. The forerunner seems to involve the idea that the federal government is implementing these changes, when using CCSS is a state-specific decision. Just because 45 out of 50 states are currently choosing to use them does not make it a national mandate. (Actually, the fact that not all 50 states have opted in should give those with a critical eye the idea that it can’t be a federal mandate.) It is important to also note that the standards address simply what the students should be learning by what grade, not how. Not only are states allowed to decide how they teach to the standards, but individual schools and teachers are allowed to instruct in their own unique ways that they feel best benefit their students.

The nation has its arguments for and against the Common Core, but as with any new change, fear of what the future will bring will hopefully subside as the standards mature. Until then, we will just have to wait and see how it unfolds. (Kate Carroll)